TODAY IN HISTORY: Queen longest reigning monarch

In 1825, composer Ludwig van Beethoven made his final public appearance, two years before his death.

In 1850, California became the 31st U.S. state and the first on the Pacific.

In 1945, Toronto-born Dick Fowler became the only Canadian to toss a major league no-hitter. Back from more than 30 months as a Canadian Army private, the 24-year-old right-hander allowed only four walks as the Philadelphia Athletics shaded the visiting St. Louis Browns 1-0.

In 1954, 16-year-old Marilyn Bell became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario. Bell started her swim the previous day from Youngstown, N.Y. She swam for 20 hours and 57 minutes under gruelling conditions, fighting five-metre waves and lamprey eels attacking her legs. About 300,000 people were on hand when she came ashore in Toronto. Bell continued her long-distance efforts and in 1955 became, at the time, the youngest person to swim the English Channel.

In 1959, it was announced that Canada’s first nuclear power station, costing $60 million, would be built near Kincardine, on Lake Huron.

In 1963, the first giant panda was born in captivity in Beijing.

In 1963, Toronto millionaire Edwin “Honest Ed” Mirvish reopened the historic Royal Alexandra Theatre. The theatre, which Mirvish restored for $500,000, was first built in 1907.

In 1964, Quebec borrowed $100 million from British Columbia, the first time one province borrowed money from another.

In 1967, the federal Progressive Conservative party ousted John Diefenbaker as leader at a Toronto convention and replaced him with Nova Scotia premier Robert Stanfield.

In 1970, the federal government announced a complete ban, effective Jan. 1, 1971, on the use of the chemical pesticide DDT in Canada.

In 1972, the Soviet Union edged the United States 51-50 on a last-second basket in the Olympic men’s basketball final in Munich. The Americans refused to accept their silver medals after one of the most controversial sports events ever.

In 1976, Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung died in Beijing at age 82. Mao started the Communist party in China in 1921 and after a long struggle with the Kuomintang nationalists, he and his party took power in 1949. He is perhaps best known for his organization of rural China into collective communes and his stressing of the role of peasants in a communist society.

In 1984, Pope John Paul arrived at Quebec City to begin a 12-day visit to Canada. It was the first time a pope had visited Canada and more than 250,000 people attended the first mass, which he celebrated at Laval Stadium.

In 1991, as many as 100,000 federal civil servants walked off the job in one of the largest strikes in Canadian history. The strike was called off nine days later when the two sides, the Public Service Alliance and Treasury Board, agreed to return to the negotiating table.

In 1997, actor Burgess Meredith died after suffering melanoma and Alzheimer’s disease. He was 89. He was best known for playing Rocky Balboa’s trainer Mickey in the “Rocky” films as well as “The Penguin” in the television series “Batman.”

In 2003, Montreal’s Dorval Airport was renamed Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport after the former Canadian prime minister.

In 2006, Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean and five crewmates lifted off on the shuttle “Atlantis” on a mission to resume construction on the International Space Station. Four days later, MacLean became just the second Canadian to walk in space as he and crewmate Dan Burbank began work to free up a new set of solar arrays to help power the station.

In 2015, Queen Elizabeth became the longestreigning British monarch, surpassing her greatgreat-grandmother Queen Victoria, who served for 63 years and 216 days from 1837-1901. Elizabeth began her reign upon the death of her father King George VI on Feb. 6, 1952.

In 2019, Robert Frank, a giant of 20th century photography whose seminal book “The Americans” captured singular, candid moments of the 1950s, died at 94. Frank died in Inverness, on Cape Breton Island. He and his second wife divided their time between Nova Scotia and New York. The Swiss-born Frank influenced countless photographers and was likened to Alexis de Tocqueville for so vividly capturing the U.S. through the eyes of a foreigner.